Genomics
Incyte could never have grown to this size by itself. It has aggressively collaborated
with, licensed from and acquired companies that can provide:
- robotics
(Science Applications International
Corp. (San Diego, Calif.))
- improved sequencing methods (GeneTrace
Systems Inc. (Alameda, Calif.) and Molecular Dynamics Inc.
(Sunnyvale, Calif.))
- gene mapping
(Genome Systems Inc. (St. Louis, Miss.) and Vysis
Inc. (Downers Grove, Ill.))
- better computer programs
to recognize important DNA sequences
- software to integrate the records of the patients who supplied the tissue samples (Oceania Inc. (Palo
Alto, Calif.))
- software to suggest how a protein may look
in three dimensions based on the sequence
of its gene (Molecular Simulations
Inc. (San Diego, Calif.))
- ink-jet technology
to put DNA on chips (Combion Inc., formerly of San Diego, Calif. and now part of Incyte)
- the ability to make chips with tens of thousands of pieces of DNA arranged on their
surface (Affymetrix Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.) and Synteni
Inc. (Fremont, Calif.))
Many of these collaborations are aimed at adding more bells and whistles
to the databases. Any researcher or high school student can compare his
or her favorite gene with public databases like GenBank
or dbEST, using a common search method called BLAST, so
the Incyte database must stand out. For starters, says Klingler, "our
customers can get the first look at 40,000 human genes that are in no other
database. And Genbank is like a snapshot - the data may be true when it
is entered but it never gets updated based on new information coming in."
Genome projects are pouring new sequences into public databases, so the
advantage of having more genes will not last for long. "They can't
keep all this data secret but they don't care, because patent protection
is lead time," says Smith. "If they know something six months
ahead that's enough - then you can tell everyone everything."
That game has an inevitable conclusion. As Mark Fishman, a biologist at
Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston, Mass.), observed at a recent genomics
meeting in San Francisco, "The problem with defining a target like
sequencing the genome is that you might succeed and then be out of a job."
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Biotech Revolutions Index
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